Clouds

I had two weeks off work at the beginning of August.  For various reasons I wasn't able to go away but I was determined to have a proper break and took lots of days out over the fortnight. Looking through the photos I took the common theme seems to be clouds.

There were clouds over Brightlingsea,

and clouds over the sculptures in the walled garden at Marks Hall.

There were clouds over the warmup track at the Athletics World Championships in the Olympic Park in London,

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and clouds over Orford as seen from RSPB Havergate Island.

There were clouds reflected in the river Alde on the walk from Snape to Iken,

and clouds over the beach at Walton on the Naze.

Fortunately, apart from on one day, they didn't produce much rain!

I'll finish with a picture of clouds taken through the meadow of corepsis and cornflowers at Marks Hall.

If you're interested,  and want to see pictures of more than just clouds, I posted photos of my holiday everyday on my instagram feed.

Snowdrops and Lace

I had a few days off this week so I decided to go for a walk amongst the snowdrops.  I headed over to Marks Hall.  First of all I walked by the lake

and along the millennium path where the winter scents are beautiful.

Soon I was at Robin's Grove which is carpeted with snowdrops.

Beautiful, and a sure sign that spring is on the way.

I also wore my newly finished lacy shawl earlier this week - it has tiny beads hooked into it (which are actually more visible in real life as they twinkle slightly).

I can't really wear many hand knitted things for work, but I can get away with nice scarves and shawls - this one will be worn a lot I'm sure.

Autumn Walking

You might have realised that I love walking.  Sadly at this time of year walking opportunities are fewer due to dark evenings but I have had a couple of lovely walks recently.

A few Saturdays ago I went over to one of my favourite places, Marks Hall Arboretum.  I walked up towards the lake,

and then around on the Millennium walk, along the bottom edge of the lake,

up to the memorial site where I'd heard the autumn colour was especially good.

The memorial site is a memorial to the serviceman who were stationed at Marks Hall during the 2nd world war - the colours in the acers were stunning.

This is acer rubrum 'October Glory'.  And it was living up to its name!

Then I walked back through the woods to the walled garden.

From the walled garden the views over the lake were lovely.

Later that same week my cousin and his wife, who now live in America, came to visit.  They wanted to walk on the Sudbury water meadows and we had a glorious day for a 4.5 mile circular route.

We walked along the river Stour, across the meadows the the Salmon Leap (no salmon in the river nowadays as far as I know!),

with time for a quick selfie

before walking back home along the river.  

Two great walks, hopefully to be repeated again very soon!

A Walk with Sculptures

I love Marks Hall, I've blogged about it before.  It's a wonderful arboretum with gardens and lakes not far from me, I'm a member and I go there often.  Today's visit was a little bit different though as throughout all of August they have the most fantastic sculptures throughout the grounds - over 230 of them.

There are sculptures that are big and in their own space,

some stand by water,

and some float on the water.

What I really loved was the sensitive placing of the sculptures, especially those in the walled gardens where they clearly enhanced their surroundings.

I really loved these fish swimming through the grasses.

Willow angels hang from trees,

metal sycamore wings spin round in the breeze,

and birds rise from swathes of white agapanthus.

These are just some of the photos I took, there are more on my flickr stream.

If you're in the area it's well worth a visit - I shall definitely be going back before the sculptures go at the end of the month, as looking at the catalogue and the website I missed quite a few!

A Late November Walk

After what seems like weeks (but probably isn't) of grey days (grey in many meanings) and being stuck inside,  I needed to get out into some fresh air and sunshine so I took myself off on a long walk hoping for some blue skies and late autumn colour.

I went to Marks Hall which is about a 30 min drive from here through beautiful north Essex lanes.

Marks Hall (and yes I've checked and double checked that there shouldn't be an apostrophe there!) is 200 acres of gardens and arboretum.

The reflections in the lake were wonderful.

Along one side of the lake is the Millennium Walk which was planted specifically for autumn, winter and spring interest - there was certainly lots of contrasting colour!

On the opposite side of the lake are the walled gardens, which were sadly shut, but the view through the (locked) gate in the wall revealed that they're still full of structure and interest.

I walked further, through some of the mixed woodland

and came across some pigs munching their way through the undergrowth!

 I passed another gate to the walled gardens, also locked, with tantalising views of the lake though it,

and back to the lake, with more reflections (and water birds).

I got my fresh air and sunshine

and I got my autumn colour.

I walked for much further than this but my camera battery ran out and the photos I took on my phone aren't as good.

Here's hoping for a brighter week, in every sense of the meaning :-)